A major but temporary internet disruption affected users worldwide on Thursday, after a technical failure struck Google Cloud services.
The incident impacted several high-traffic platforms such as Spotify, Discord, Snapchat, UPS, Pokémon, Character.ai, and Google’s own Workspace tools including Gmail and Google Drive.
The problem started in the early afternoon, Pacific Time. Google confirmed the issue on its Cloud status dashboard, stating that engineers had “identified the root cause” and were working on a fix by 12:41pm.
Another update at 1:16pm assured users that repair efforts were ongoing. Despite these actions, some regions still experienced delays in service restoration.
Businesses and Consumers Affected by Global Downtime
By mid-afternoon, Google noted that its systems had recovered everywhere except in its us-central1 data centre, a key location in the United States. That facility continued to have problems for a short period while other regions returned to normal.
During the outage, social media platforms and real-time messaging services were among the hardest hit. Businesses relying on logistics tools and cloud-hosted communication apps also had temporary hurdles. Character.ai, used for AI-generated chats, and delivery company UPS reported unstable service.
Several platforms later confirmed that their systems were stabilising.
Downdetector, a service tracking global outage reports, saw a sharp drop in user complaints around 2pm Pacific Time, suggesting that many services were beginning to function normally again.
Google posted a final status update confirming that its Workspace tools were back online. “The problem with Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Chat, Google Cloud Search, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Meet, Google Tasks, and Google Voice has been resolved,” the company said. “We apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support.”
Dependence on Cloud Services Raises Global Concerns
The disruption reminds users how many platforms depend heavily on cloud infrastructure. Even a brief outage can interrupt digital communications, online entertainment, logistics, and productivity.
Cloud services are essential for both business operations and everyday communication. Many companies rely on these platforms for internal collaboration, customer support, order tracking, and virtual meetings. The wide reach of the disruption proved that no part of the internet operates in isolation.
Though services recovered quickly, the experience raised concerns about how much control one provider can have over global access to vital digital services.
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